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Daisetsuzan NP, Hokkaido
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At 270 m, Hagoromo Falls is Hokkaido’s tallest. Two streams join partway down the cliff, then tumble through 7 turns—a rare waterfall that merges as it falls.
Tenninkyo’s pillars began as hot ash and rock from an eruption about 30,000 years ago; as the deposits cooled, they cracked into columns. A gravel seam near Tennin Bridge records a second eruption at least 100 years later.
A 1917 map already labels Hagoromo Falls, although the familiar story credits poet Ōmachi Keigetsu with naming it in 1918. His recorded visit to Tenninkyo was in 1921, so the name’s origin is less settled than the tale suggests.
A rare Daisetsuzan endemic, the yellow, brown-speckled hagoromo-hototogisu is named for Hagoromo Falls. Past reports warned that collecting had left very few plants, so local naturalists kept its exact growing sites quiet.
Local folklore says a celestial maiden wept at Tears Rock after losing her feather robe; the water trails on the cliff are said to be her tears. The story gives one of Tenninkyo’s named rocks a mythic namesake.
Tenninkyo’s hot spring was discovered during mineral prospecting on the Chubetsu River in 1894. Early outdoor baths clung to the columnar cliffs, and bathers crossed the river on a small bridge to reach them.
In August 1975, Typhoon 6 triggered debris flows that severed Tenninkyo’s road, stranding roughly 800 hot-spring guests and staff. The risk led to national erosion-control works in the area from 1978.
Ayako Miura’s 1972 novel Jiga no Kōzu opens with a drive toward Tenninkyo. Its October scene sets red rowan berries and fresh snow on the Tokachi range against the gorge’s autumn landscape.
The Chubetsu River running through Tenninkyo has an Ainu name with competing interpretations. Asahikawa’s city museum records ciw-pet, “wave river,” as well as cup-pet, “sun river,” and cuk-pet, “autumn river.”
A spring 2013 landslide destroyed Hagoromo Falls’ viewing platform and closed the approach trail. Repairs took 5 years; the trail reopened on June 11, 2018.
